


deep

by lovelyflowersinherhair



Series: Table Four [26]
Category: Baby-Sitters Club - Ann M. Martin
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-09
Updated: 2020-01-09
Packaged: 2021-02-20 08:27:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 442
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22181002
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lovelyflowersinherhair/pseuds/lovelyflowersinherhair
Summary: "Please. It's the Jersey Shore. There's more dangerous things lurking on the boardwalk."
Relationships: Byron Pike/Jeff Schafer
Series: Table Four [26]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/14125
Comments: 3
Kudos: 6





	deep

"You never told me you were afraid of the water," Jeff said to Byron, and Byron shrugged. 

He found himself wishing for the umpteenth time that he hadn’t invited Jeff with them to Sea City, even though that wasn’t the truth. Jeff being there wasn’t the problem. Byron felt that _he_ was the problem. They were both teenagers, practically out of high school, and he still felt like he was ten years old on the beach with Stacey McGill, practically panicking about the fact that the water was too dark to see through. 

He drew in a deep breath, and tried to figure out an explanation that didn’t sound completely ridiculous, before he decided to just go with the truth. It wasn’t like Jeff couldn’t just _ask_ Jordan or Adam about it. "It's the depth. I can't see the bottom and it makes me _crazy_.”

Jeff let out a heavy sigh. "It really isn't that bad," he said. "The water."

Byron wondered if Jeff meant the literal water -- the actual Atlantic Ocean that they stood in front of, the waves of which lapped at their bare feet -- or if he was just using it as a clumsy metaphor for something else, like the awkwardness that had developed between everyone over their last few encounters. Not that he wanted to talk about that. He suspected that Jeff didn’t want to discuss it either. As far as Byron was concerned, it was a non-issue. Friends grew apart, after all, especially when they lived with an entire continent between them, and so did triplets. It was delusional to think that time wouldn’t have changed either relationship. 

"It's _creepy_ ," Byron said, his tone rather insistent. "Who knows what's lurking beneath the surface?"

Jeff rolled his eyes. "Please. It's the _Jersey Shore_. There's more dangerous things lurking on the boardwalk."

He sighed. "I don't expect you to understand.” 

"Make me," he said, and he stopped abruptly. "Make me understand. I want to understand."

Jeff reached out and touched his wrist, and Byron instinctively bristled. “What?” He demanded. “I’m not gonna hurt you, or anything, jeeze, By.” 

"I _told_ you, okay? I don't like going into the ocean when I can't see the depth. That's it. There's no 'hidden meaning', or anything."

“Okay,” he said. “We don’t have to go swimming.”

“We can go to the bay,” he suggested, after a moment of silence, during which Jeff had let out a plaintive sigh. “We can swim there. It’s not bad there.” 

“Do you really want to?” 

“Yeah,” he said. “Come on, let’s go. We can go to the Burger Garden after. I heard they’ve added some vegetarian options.” 


End file.
